


Every Morning After

by inelegantly (Lir)



Series: SASO 2015 Fills [16]
Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Challenge: Sports Anime Shipping Olympics | SASO 2015, F/F, Political Alliances, Relationship Negotiation, Wordcount: 100-2.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 07:32:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4737899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/pseuds/inelegantly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>If she's very honest with herself, she likes seeing Umi there, curled on her chair and head ducked in study like she has no plans of moving for a thousand years. Eli likes having Umi's company in her bedroom, quiet and calm as they sit together doing simple things; reading books, eating dinner, even looking over newly proposed legislation for the country. </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>If she's honest, she doesn't want Umi to leave.</i>
</p>
<p>Eli marries Umi for a political alliance, well aware that their union is a partnership more than a romance. With time, she finds herself wanting to change that. She doesn't expect Umi to feel the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Every Morning After

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the second bonus round of the 2015 [Sports Anime Shipping Olympics](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org), where the theme of the round is AUs. The prompt I am working from was, "Political-arranged-marriage-for-the-sake-of-the-kingdom-but-oops-i-fell-in-love AU."
> 
> I love negotiated relationships like this so the prompt was pretty much made for me. I enjoyed writing it a lot.

-

"You can take a break from that, you know," Eli says, as she moves to stand behind Umi at her writing desk.

"I wanted to finish reading over all of the new provisions," Umi replies, her eyes glued to the paper. "The next council meeting is tomorrow. It's useless if we aren't prepared with a new treatise, and the treatise itself is worthless if we do not understand what its requirements consist of." 

Eli takes a moment just to look down at Umi's studiously bowed head, her hair falling forward around her face to curtain around the documents she's looking over. Her shoulders are hunched and stiff, and the curve of her back doesn't look to be comfortable. Eli places her hand on Umi's shoulder, and takes reassurance in the fact that Umi does not flinch away — though that may only be the result of her complete absorption into her reading. 

Where Umi can't see it, Eli's face softens, her lips trying to pull into a sympathizing smile. 

"I always tried to be on top of every new treatise and proposal myself, when I first took the throne," she says. "But you can never be prepared for every complaint or issue that will come up, and past a point, one's ability to think on one's feet becomes more important than how well one memorizes words on a page." 

"I just want to do this right," Umi says, finally looking up at Eli. Her expression is resolute, but underneath the seriousness of her words there is the slightest pleading tone. 

"You have been," Eli says. "I couldn't ask for better." 

"I still can do better," Umi says, her cheeks just starting to color before she jerks her gaze away and bows her head back over her papers. 

Something in Eli's chest draws tight, though she isn't certain if it's at the sight of Umi pushing herself for an alliance that will benefit Eli's country as much or more than it will benefit Umi's own, or if it's in response to the pink flush that has crept, however briefly, over Umi's face. It feels impolite, to think that Umi is cute like that, with a little humanity cracking through underneath her stringently-maintained professional facade. 

"Did I negotiate myself a wife?" Eli asks, amusement and exasperation both coloring her voice. "Or a secretary?" 

"I suppose you may have negotiated both," Umi says, and Eli has to bite back a laugh. 

"I was planning on retiring," Eli says, glancing back toward the bed when Umi looks up, to indicate what she means. "So while I appreciate your dedication, you may wish to..." 

She waves one hand vaguely, struggling to settle on the words that she needs. "Return to your own room" feels... So curt, cold, even when Umi's apartment is just on the other side of the royal suite. Eli needs to give Umi the opportunity to excuse herself before she begins preparing for bed — owes her that much, when they are married in title more than anything — but she doesn't _want_ to shoo Umi away from her writing desk.

If she's very honest with herself, she likes seeing Umi there, curled on her chair and head ducked in study like she has no plans of moving for a thousand years. Eli likes having Umi's company in her bedroom, quiet and calm as they sit together doing simple things; reading books, eating dinner, even looking over newly proposed legislation for the country. 

If she's honest, she doesn't want Umi to leave. 

"I'll just be a moment more," Umi says. She's not looking at Eli. "Do whatever you have to do." 

Eli squeezes Umi's shoulder, and feels something warm unfurl inside her chest at the little glimpse of a smile she catches sight of, tugging at Umi's lips in response. She turns away, stepping across the room to her vanity. She is already as good as ready to sleep, fed and washed up and relaxed, but she does take an extra few minutes to let down her hair in front of the mirror, and to slip off the last of her outer wear until she's sitting in only a thin silken shift. 

She thinks, as she's running her brush through her hair, that she feels the weight of eyes on her back, but is too polite to glance behind her and attempt to make sure. 

Instead she rises only when she's through, stepping around the room to put out the lights ensconced in each corner and leaving the small desk lamp for last. Her circuit takes her again to Umi's side, where she lingers in silent contemplation of Umi's back.

"I thought you said you'd only be a moment," Eli points out, not without some amusement. "I can leave the lamp on for you, though, and you can retire when you please." 

"Thank you, I—" Umi begins, looking up. Her eyes fall on Eli in her nightgown and she blushes again, immediately averting her face. "I won't be much longer. I didn't mean to keep you up, and... I'm sorry, for that." 

"It's nothing," Eli says, because it isn't, and because Umi's nervousness is calling out to something tense with longing nestled snug inside her chest. 

She remembers just after the wedding, when Umi would hardly look at her. She'd thought then that Umi was shy, and had raked through her memory to find the hints of it during negotiations for the alliance-marriage. During all of those meetings Umi had been respectfully silent sitting behind her parents, but had also held her head high and proud, surveying Eli with calm poise. 

That firmness had vanished once it was Umi alone, leaving her to shrink from Eli's eyes and to draw her shoulders in, like she wished to leave the room but barring that possibility, would leave her body as small and unobtrusive as possible. 

It had taken some coaxing, for Eli to put Umi again at ease. That's why they have the arrangement they do — a royal suite, with two bedrooms inside one apartment, so that they each might have privacy within a marriage made for their countries more so than for love. Eli has had no illusions about her bride's affections for her, and though it pained her to hold herself remote (she's so practiced at it, she should be good at it, she shouldn't find it so strange and cold), she made the effort to relegate herself to working partner. 

She shakes her head, telling herself not to think too hard on Umi softening back to newly-married nervousness. She turns away, walking to the bed and turning down the covers before sliding underneath them. After another minute, she sees Umi blow out the lamp at the desk, and drop the room further into darkness. 

She's surprised, when she feels the bed dip on her right. 

"Eli?" Umi asks, her face a smudge in the darkness, her voice small and unexpectedly uncertain. "I'm... Sorry, and I know this is presumptuous, but... Would you mind, if I stayed tonight?" 

For a moment, Eli can't find her tongue in her head. The request feels unreal, like something taken out of the most shadowed recesses of her mind, from the corners where she shoves wants that she knows should not, will not, be realized. She swallows, and finds it isn't so hard to make herself smile. 

"That's fine with me, if it's really what you prefer," she says. "Go ahead, please." 

The bed dips again as Umi shifts, pulling back the blankets further and sliding in next to Eli. She lies herself down as flat and stiff as one of the dead laid out on a funeral bier, stretched out as far from Eli on the mattress as she can manage. 

"It's alright," Eli whispers in the darkness. "Relax. I don't want you up all night, least of all if it's because of me." 

"Are you sure?" Umi asks, slowly rolling toward her. 

Eli finds herself able to pick Umi's face more clearly out of the dark, her uncertainty vivid on shadowed features. She looks torn, nervous, and Eli's heart aches reciprocally in her chest. 

"Am I sure about what?" Eli asks in return, as gently as she's able. 

"That you want me here," Umi says, making herself speak plain and firm. "I know this is an alliance rather than a marriage, and I did think at the beginning that this was in fact something I would want, far more than a wedding meant to be genuine. I was... Worried, then, that it would be turned into something more complicated on me." 

Eli is silent, waiting for Umi to continue. Umi purses her lips together, watching Eli's face in the gloom. 

"I think I am the one who made things more complicated," she whispers. "And I really didn't mean to do so." 

"Umi," Eli says, reaching out to touch the other girl's face, leaning forward to press the lightest of kisses to the curve of Umi's brow. "This may actually have become a lot less complicated than either of us expected." 

When Umi remains stiff underneath her hand, Eli sighs, and then smiles. "We learned just fine how to be partners. It shouldn't be so much harder, learning how to be lovers instead." 

"Eli!" Umi gasps, and even in the low light, Eli is certain she's blushing. 

Eli laughs, unable to stop herself, though her chuckling is warm and gentle. "Slowly," she says. "We'll learn slowly." 

After a moment, Umi relaxes again, and slides a bit closer to Eli on the mattress. Eli fumbles against it until she finds Umi's hand, squeezing it underneath the blankets. She rolls onto her side and kisses Umi again, this time on her cheek. 

"Go to bed," Eli says. "There's time for romance in the morning — and I suppose now, for every morning after that." 

-

-


End file.
